Phil Peel

I  flew back yesterday from the buzz of the festival, excited by all the great feedback on my “Jack’s back” screenplay. “Original”, “Extremely well written”, “edge of seat”, “a page turner”, “great sense of foreboding etc.”

But I now have to sit down and work through all the highly detailed advice, corrections etc.  (or rather not sit down, as I’m still writing standing up)

Thank you Ken, Graham and Damien for your excellent advice. + Rachael, Karen, Keith and Michael for your encouragement.

EIFF 2012 Screenwriters Group: Karen, Rachel, Ken, Keith, Damien, Me, Graham

You all prefaced your comments with ” But of course you don’t have to do what I say, It’s only my opinion.etc ”  So I now have to decide:

• how much to take the advice (i.e  others are wiser.  I shouldn’t be so proud that I can’t admit when I’ve got it  wrong
• Or  stick with what I intended (Heed the inner voice of the artist. Be true to yourself. blah blah etc.)

One good approach is to to work on those aspects of the script  that all the readers highlighted as being dodgy.  Which is why it is so useful to have multiple readers.  So I’ll start with that.

…and stop procrastinating by writing this blog.

Bizarrely and for reasons that are too complicated to explain, an England win tonight may directly lead to getting feature film funding.

I just came out of a very interesting delegates session at  Edinburgh International Film Festival

A panel of industry experts had been assembled which encompassed  the whole of the production process from agent, producer, public funder, UK and International distribution and Internet marketing.

The panel were given a fictional first time producer / director team …complete with photoshop created mugshots, with a track record of a good short film and some good film scripts.

The audience then selected which film would go into production and the panel discussed and negotiated with each other  through all the process involved in the completion of the film .

Various problems were thrown into the equation and the panel had to explain how they would react and support or guide the director with problems like an actor with acute anxiety problems and a disgruntled  twittering screenwriter.

This created a fascinating insight into the interactions between all the parties involved as they worked to bring the film to the market.  I was surprised at the close involvement of the funders and distributors. e.g watching all the first weeks rushes.  …to check that all was OK. How they could tell from the rushes the mood of the crew.

A good session, which got away from the normal reminiscent led industry panel discussions.

I remember buying The Lorax , the book that is, way back in the 1970s I think it was. Though it was a kids book and I was an adult the Lorax made a big impression on me.

I think it was one of the first kids books to deal with environmental issues and for some reason it struck a chord with me.

Years later I read it to my children and my wife, who was a teacher, took it into school to read to  her classes. One day sadly it got left there, so I no longer have the 30 year old copy.  (I’ve subsequently discovered that first edition copies can reach over £1000 )

So I was keen to see the new version ( with added 3D!) yesterday  I saw it in a press screening at the Edinburgh Film Festival.   So how had it survived the journey from short book to major feature film?

Not too bad. Ok it has been Disneyfied and cutened ( is that word?) I’m not sure about all the songs. Particularly toward the end, it all became a bit evangelical. and Hapy Happy ending, which creates the impression that the world has all been put to rights, when of course it hasn’t. There was a young romance which I’m not sure was in the original story, but they did need to fill 90 + minutes, so a romance is an easy option.

The young hero sets out to save the planet (sorry trees) not out of any altruistic intentions, but to impress the girl.   Apart from that  I think it stuck pretty much to Dr Seuss’s theme.

NOTE: I’ve now check out the original story, which begins and ends with the environment as a wasteland, though the ending has a glimpse of hope, when the young lad is given the last live seed. So yes the story in the film has been changed.

The ancient computer I’m typing this on at the delegates centre is really slow, so I’m going to leave it there, before I get too frustrated

But I think I’ll go and buy the book again.